LEADERS OF ANTIFRAGILE ORGANISATIONS

How do you enable an antifragile organisation?

This of you who read my previous paper on “Lessons from Antifragile Organisations” will know that I derived 7 key insights into how these organisations developed high levels of resilience (antifragility) to unanticipated shocks and disruptive change.

I’ve had many questions from clients about the characteristics and behaviours of the leaders who lead these organisations and facilitate organisational resilience. I’ve reflected on the data and identified 7 insights about these leaders. These are outlined in the diagram above.

Please recognise that these 7 characteristics and behaviours -? which are outlined in further detail below - are all underpinned by 3 key leadership capabilities:

• An agile and growth mindset
• A shift in their role from being the “hero” in every situation to being the “host” who assembles and enables a competent team
• The ability to create a degree of psychological safety in their teams to allow individuals to contribute fully.

1: You are more than your job

I was interested in how many of these leaders had a broad array of interests and hobbies outside of their work. Several spoke of the importance of their families, friends and outside interests in keeping them emotionally regulated as they dealt with the stress and uncertainty in their leadership roles.

The notion of having than more than just your job to define your identity is a particularly important component of personal resilience. It helps to build several scaffolds around your self-belief and confidence - particularly when the workplace presents disruptions and continuous change.

2: Don’t streamline all aspects of your life - “build your adaptability muscles”

The convenience of streamlining your life when you are busy seems to make sense - less to worry about and more time to focus on work issues. The streamlining may take the form of always visiting the same restaurant, taking the same route to work or holding your meetings in the same way. In a sense, this can remove much of the variation and inconsistency from your life.

However, this streamlining habit also prevents one from dealing with minor changes and adjustments in relatively “safe” activities. It might also be preventing the development of “adaptability muscles” - one’s ability to cope with unanticipated change. It seems that the more practiced one is in dealing with these changes (admittedly in less important matters), the more you are likely one is able to cope with larger disruptions that occur. In many ways, the practice one gets from dealing with minor disruptions will increase the ability to cope with the more major changes that occur in life. You are developing your “adaptability muscles” and developing your own resilience.

3: Seek advice from critical people

We understand the benefits of seeking advice and input from a wide variety of people and sources. I was particularly interested in those leaders who spoke of the benefits of seeking the opinions of those who were usually quite critical or cynical. They suggested it not only gave them a more complete view of the situation, it also forced them to conduct a “pre-mortem” - a focus on what might go wrong and how they could avoid this.

I reflect on how we tend to seek advice from those who are likely to be more sympathetic to our views - those that are likely to support and agree with our perspective. However, it seems that resilience is enhanced when we are cognisant of the possible pitfalls and opposition to our views. This is more likely to foster resilience in leaders.

4: Step back when faced with difficult challenges

Most of the resilient organisations we reviewed (in the previous paper) faced complex? markets and challenges. The relationship between cause and effect are rarely linear in complex markets, and best-practice is generally less effective or even non-existent.

Relying on logic alone will not address really complex issues - time is needed for reflection and the resultant insight that will often produce a breakthrough in thinking. It is noteworthy how many of the leaders reported taking time out to “move away” from work challenges by reading, exercising or even meditating to create time and space for reflection. In essence, this points to the need for stepping back from really difficult and complex challenges - and resisting the temptation to look for quick answers based on previous experience.

5: Practice liminality - use logic and insight?

Closely related to the previous point of stepping back, liminality represents a state of “suspension” in which we have the opportunity of stepping back and reflecting more deeply on our goals and means of achieving them

Liminality is the space that exists between one state and another. In leadership, it can refer to the stage at which people are in the process of considering an alternative approach or idea - but are not bound to either the existing idea or the new idea. It is, in effect, a pause in commitment to, or belief in, either of the ideas.

This apparent indecision is actually a deliberate process by leaders to allow time for reflection and deeper consideration of the options.? It requires patience and ability to deal with the discomfort caused by a lack of closure.

6: Recognise a new definition of wisdom

Adam Grant’s work around wisdom in our modern age was instrumental in my framing when seeking to understand some of the characteristics of these leaders. The basic idea is that the new definition of wisdom may no longer be the long-serving, highly experienced individual who knows “everything” about a particular topic. Instead, wisdom may be those who are able to change their mind in line with the new evidence presented by a given situation.?

We are in no way discounting the value of experience, but it was noticeable how many of the leaders made significant shifts in their long-held views of the industry and markets after reviewing credible new evidence. Rather than being viewed as weak or inconsistent, these leaders appeared incredibly courageous as they publicly (in their own organisations) overturned well-established views about the market and strategy.

7: Be aware of emotional triggers and temporal predisposition

Many of the observed leaders revealed two key aspects of their own self-awareness.

The first was their recognition of their own biases and preferences - particularly those that were likely to trigger an emotional response. Examples varied from the use of powerpoint in presentations to people who spoke slowly in meetings. Being aware of these emotional triggers, leaders were able to avoid an emotionally-charged response, better manage their reactions and respond in a non-judgemental way.

The second, although not quite so widely apparent, was an awareness of their preferences relating to time. A future-oriented leader might be concerned about long-term implications, while a past-oriented leader is more focused on the history and precedent of similar decisions. Awareness of one’s preferences for time will promote a more complete assessment in decision making. ?

Do antifragile leaders create antifragile organisations?

As I outlined in the opening paragraph, the 7 characteristics and behaviours of these leaders are necessary, but not sufficient, requirements to develop a resilient organisation. Clearly, what is also needed is a clear and well-articulated strategy that has good engagement and commitment from the people.